In commercial operations where very large numbers of similar documents must be produced and mailed, a very small savings per document will translate into a large saving over the many documents. Examples of such documents are payroll checks, direct mail solicitations, 1099 forms, invoices, business statements, coupons, sales pieces, student grade reports, membership notices, and so forth. There are many other examples.
Traditional expenses for such operations include the cost of printing the documents, and labor for such tasks as folding, stuffing envelopes, and addressing. Another large and unavoidable expense is the postage to be paid for such mailings. In recent years, with the advent of equipment suitable for automatic handling of pieces of mail, it has become possible for the U.S. Post Office to offer discounts for bulk mailings that conform to certain standards for handling by automatic equipment. Among the standards are quite naturally certain size restrictions, and restrictions to loose edges and flaps which might jam the equipment. For bulk mail that conforms to the standards, Post Net Bar Codes are used in the processing.
Also in recent years, especially with the rapid growth of computer control techniques, equipment has been developed to produce self-mailers. This process takes a single sheet or a starting form comprising more than one sheet, and folds the form in concert with an application of adhesive (or activation of existing areas of adhesive), perforates the edges for ease of opening, and seals the form into a unit known in the art as a self-mailer. The self-mailer becomes or contains its own envelope, and no stuffing of envelopes is needed.
There are a number of different types of self-mailers known in the art and a number of different procedures for making them. For example, a type of adhesive that may later be activated with water (remoistenable adhesive) may be applied to forms, which are then fed automatically through a laser printer, and then to a folding and gluing machine that moistens the adhesive strips, folds the sheets, perforates the sheets appropriately for the particular form, and seals the unit together as a self-mailer. Remoistenable adhesive is the type used for flaps of most envelopes, and thus is familiar to most everyone.
Remoistenable glue has been a problem for forms that require printing, because laser-type printers have emerged as the state-of-the-art devices for speedy and economical printing. Remoistenable adhesives have not been tolerant of the heat required for fusion-type printers, which includes laser printers. The glue melts or partially melts and often jams the printers.
What is clearly needed in the art is a self-mailer, and a form for making a self-mailer, that results in a convenient return envelope with a pre-printed address, a convenient statement form, preferably presentable in parts for a user's own records and for a return form, a means of printing variable information during the printing and forming process, and a means of using remoistenable glue in the self-mailer without a danger of affecting fusion printers, all while producing a final product that meets the requirements for automatic handling. Such a mailer provides a considerable saving to the user/sender and a convenience to the recipient.